Covid-19: Desperate farmers push for borders to reopen

NSW farmers are warning they urgently need 16,000 workers from interstate and overseas to deliver their current harvest or shoppers will end up paying the price.

Desperate NSW farmers are warning they urgently need 16,000 workers from interstate and overseas to deliver their current harvest or shoppers will end up paying the price.

And Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s decision last week to put the brakes on NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet’s move to throw open borders to all including migrant workers has left them fuming.

“We had been calling for cheaper and more efficient quarantine arrangements heading into a big harvest season, and were relieved by the Premier’s announcement,” NSW Farmers President James Jackson said.

“Now we’re left shaking our heads. Plants ready for harvest don’t care about political finger-pointing or vaccination rates; our farmers desperately need workers and this is just another barrier to getting the help they need.

“Both the state and federal governments urgently need to sit down and sort this out, so we can get on with the job of harvesting our crops and helping rebuild the economy.”

Guy Gaeta at his Orchard “Mirridong” near Orange where he grows Fuji apples.

Mr Jackson said it was a crisis that could be avoided with the “common sense” and political will to allow 16,000 workers into NSW.

After years of drought and struggle, farmers are finally looking at a bumper harvest.

They want the border with Queensland open so professional fruit pickers can come into NSW to assist with the harvest from now until January.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palszczuk has vowed to open the border to interstate hot spots by Christmas with no quarantine requirement – which is too late for fruit and many grains which need to be harvested by then.

Farmers also want open international borders to allow backpackers and other migrant workers in to help. In February 2020 there were 143,042 backpackers in Australia, a year later because of Covid that number had shrunk to just 32,000.

Cherry and apple grower Guy Gaeta from Orange said: “We need the borders open. Every year we have seasonal workers come from Queensland but they are not going to come if they cannot get back home.

“And we need backpackers. I don’t know what they do on Bondi Beach but when they come here they work hard because they want the money – they can earn up to $500 a day.”

Mr Gaeta said he needs 50 people for six weeks to help him pick, grade and pack 200 tonnes of cherries.

“It would break my heart to have to leave good fruit on the trees,” he said. “The people who will end up paying are Australian shoppers because there will be less supply so the price will go up.”

Guy Gaeta on the farm with his grandchildren Jadon 3, Alexis 6, Jasmine 8 and Owen 9.

Last week Deputy Premier Paul Toole said more than 4500 public servants from the Department of Regional NSW would be offered up to five days leave to assist with the harvest.

Mr Toole yesterday vowed to do everything possible to get “all hands on deck to get crops off.

“It’s critical we continue to look at ways to secure the workforce needed to bring in this year’s grain crop, which is forecast to top 16 million tonnes,” he said.

“This is about getting produce to market and dollars into farmers’ pockets and is something I’m talking to the Federal Government about.”

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